Practice Areas

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is initiating environmental reviews of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a free trade agreement under negotiation between the U.S. and the European Union, and the Trade in Services Agreement, which is currently being negotiated among the U.S. and 22 other economies. USTR is soliciting through Sept. 2 written comments on the topics that should be included in the scope of this review, including potential positive or negative environmental effects that might result and potential implications for U.S. environmental laws and regulations. USTR also welcomes public views on appropriate methodologies and sources of data for conducting the review.

USTR states that the purpose of these reviews is to ensure that policymakers and the public are informed about reasonably foreseeable environmental impacts of TTIP and TISA (both positive and negative), to identify complementarities between trade and environmental objectives, and to help shape appropriate responses if environmental impacts are identified. Reviews are intended to be one of several tools for integrating environmental information and analysis into the fluid, dynamic process of trade negotiations.